


Always a Price

by Sassaphrass



Series: Blood Magic [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: All Magic Comes With a Price, Alternate Universe, Angst, Bucky cast a spell on Steve, Drabble, Gen, LITERALLY, magical powers, sad fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-05
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 13:12:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1745885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sassaphrass/pseuds/Sassaphrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky Barnes is a remarkable young man: he has magic in his veins. </p><p>But, magic is a dangerous force and often turns against those who think they can control it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always a Price

 

If someone were to ask the residents of a certain neighbourhood in Brooklyn which of the local boys was truly remarkable, not one of them would answer Jame Buchanan Barnes.

 

There are many reasons for this one is Franklin DelaRoberre who is the top of his class and going to university on a full scholarship, another is Steven G. Rogers who has managed to survive more chronic illnesses than should be medically possible, but the main reason is that while James B. Barnes is a nice enough boy for someone who has been known to occassionally rob drunken sailors, he's doesn't come across as... special.

 

He is though. Because Bucky can make things happen. It's not easy or perfect and has a tendency to bite him in the ass but he can influence things. It's something his old gran showed him. Apparently it's more common in the women in his family, a factoid he promptly did his best to ignore.

 

He only uses it on purpose once. He picks the wild flowers from the park, sets them on fire and douses the flame with his blood and thinks “Don't let Steve pass the physical. Don't let him die in this war” As an after thought he adds “Please, I don't want to die either.”

 

Erskine was a genius it is true. But, without the magic that wouldn't let Steve die, the experiment would have been a failure.

 

When Bucky opens his eyes to see Steve big and tall and strong he thinks “Well, obviously that trick with the flowers was some elaborate joke Gran was playing on me.”

 

When he falls he knows that it was a lie.

 

He never knows that Steve doesn't make it home from the war either. That he goes down with a Nazi plane in 1945 just a few months before VE day.

 

 

Steve survives the war though. Bucky does too.

 

When he leaves Steve on the banks of the Potomac, and sees his own face in black and white at the museum, he looks around at this bright new world and quietly curses those old forces his grandmother had taught him about.

 

Because Steve didn't pass the physical. Steve didn't die in the war, and neither did he. But, God, he wishes he had.

 

Magic always bites you in the ass.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: This fic now has a sequel! It is called When the Battle's Lost and Won. Mostly it's about Bucky running away and trying to put his head on straight.


End file.
